


Returning the Favor

by LizRambler



Series: Sleepovers [4]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-27 11:29:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21391417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizRambler/pseuds/LizRambler
Summary: Rose is injured and spends a few hours recovering in the Doctor's memories.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: Sleepovers [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1531835
Comments: 8
Kudos: 141





	Returning the Favor

“LOOK OUT!” 

Ten minutes since Rose shouted. Ten minutes since she pushed him out of the way and sent him crashing into the delegation. Nine minutes twenty-two seconds since he lifted her up in a bridal carry and raced her, bleeding with a poisoned arrow jutting out of her shoulder. Five minutes and twelve seconds since he dropped her down into medbay bed. Two minutes since he bandaged up the hole, tossing the arrow fletched with bright pink feathers away and into the corner. Now he sat next to her, an IV drip administering an antidote to the poison the arrow had been dipped in. 

Rose’s sweet face was pinched in discomfort. She gripped his hand tightly. He squeezed back too hard, furious with her for risking her life for him. The Tardis admonished him, freezing the corner of his mind where she lived, insisting that Rose was brave and smart and wonderful and protective. “I know,” he growled, still angry.

A second warning pulse zipped through him. The Doctor loosened his grip and used his free hand to smooth Rose’s hair back away from her face. Dark denim blue flowers were woven into the slightly oily blonde hair. Four days on Scarris with the rebels and no showers. Three days negotiating a peace treaty. Rose hadn't complained once, not about the dust or the sponge baths or the strange cakes that tasted more like avocado and mint than anything resembling a cake flavor. She had giggled a bit at the cheese that tasted like grape soda but that was silly and a normal response to the ridiculous food. Rose was even responsible for the peace treaty. She had sat the leaders of both factions down and talked sense into them. All he had to do was disarm a few weapons systems and nod along with all her suggestions. Easy peasy…

Scanning her with his sonic, the Doctor checked and triple checked her levels. He authorized a full body scan from the Tardis as well and then rechecked the IV line. She was going to be fine. A whoosh of breath came out of him, He hadn’t even noticed his respiratory bypass kicking in. Rose was going to live. She’d be back to fighting strength in a day. The small wound from the arrow would heal in less than a week. He took a few more steadying breaths as he turned the situation over in his head. He should have realized that not everyone was going to be excited about the new age of peaceful cooperation. Same ole story… Some people were never happy about being happy. They couldn’t let their cause go. They just had to kill anyone who tried to compromise. Tried to help. Stupid. 

The poison would have killed the Scarrins. Anyone of them hit with the poison-tipped arrow would have been dead in a matter of minutes and the war would have restarted. The Tardis chimed in that it would have killed him too. He brushed her off, the nosy time machine! She flash froze him in protest. He shut his mental barriers against her as she squawked in protest. She could keep her opinions to herself for now. The Doctor wanted to focus on Rose. 

The companion in question shifted restlessly. Rose grimaced. The Doctor picked up her hand again. The muscles were twitching. The scans had said it was a paralytic, killing by stopping the heart and lungs. Rose’s human body wasn’t the right chemical composition for the effects to be severe. And although that kept her alive, it also made some of the side effects unpredictable without testing. At the very least, Rose would have been aware and unable to move for several days if he hadn’t intervened. The brilliant IV he had infused with an antidote from several hundred years in Rose’s future, would take the paralysis down to approximately ten hours, fourteen minutes. Sleep was what she needed. Rose loved to sleep. Slept all the time. Hadn’t slept well in days. This would be just the extended rest she needed.

He tapped his free hand against the bed. His feet set to tapping along with impatience. Rose’s features were not smoothing out into a relaxed sleep. She still had that little frown-y wrinkle between her eyes. The Doctor plucked the flowers from her hair one by one. She looked too much like sleeping beauty for his liking, even if she wasn’t strictly speaking, sleeping. Why wasn’t she sleeping? He had added a substantial amount of sedative to her IV, enough to fell a human girl, surely. He shredded the flowers in frustration.

Lowering his mental barriers again to ask the Tardis, he was hit with a blast of pain. Jolted, his eyes shot to the ceiling. The pain cut out. The Doctor sent the Tardis a question. The pain flashed through him again, until he clutched Rose’d blanket in his fists, crying out. The pain cutting off like a faucet as he realized what was happening. The Tardis wasn’t in pain. She was funneling it into him from- “Rose? It’s Rose in pain?”

The Doctor stood up. “No, she should just sleep. The poison shouldn’t cause...” The pain switched on again. He stumbled, slamming into the side of the bed. His entire nervous system was on fire.“No. No, she can’t survive that for ten hours.” A frustrated growl escaped him. “Gaaaah!!!”

He shrugged off his jacket and kicked the bed. The Tardis kindly extended it for him from a single to a double. Kicking off his chucks, he hopped up onto the bed. Turning Rose gently, he spooned up behind her. Hesitating, as he gently laid his hand on her temple. It was against everything in him to do this without Rose asking him to do it, or at least nodding. The Tardis flooded him once more with Rose’s pain. His nerves were on fire. Hissing, he inwardly cursed the Tardis. “I get it, I understand… Stop it, so I can help her!” he shouted.

The pain flicked off.

The Doctor pressed gently against Rose’s temple, closing his eyes, he touched the edges of her consciousness. The white-hot pain radiated out in lacerating beams. He gritted his teeth against the sensation of being sliced to ribbons as he sank down into the hellscape that was Rose’s current mental state. Gone was the warmth and comfort of her mind. Pain responses and electric shocks rippled out from the center as her brain failed to cope. Reaching into her brain, he connected to her thalamus and her spinal column, attempted to block her pain receptors, forcing her body to produce GPCRs. The direct contact was like gripping acid. His own system shook violently in a sympathetic reaction. He was sure he was screaming. Seconds passed as days in agony. He couldn’t stop the pain fast enough. They’d both go insane from it.

Releasing her autonomic functions, The Doctor imagined Rose standing beside him. He built the construct with a barrier against the pain to lure her in. It was exhausting holding it together and the pain at bay. Luckily, Rose, brilliant Rose, dove right into the construct. Big fat tears ran down her face. His hearts skipped. 

He offered her his hand and a smile. Rose gripped it like a lifeline.

The Doctor closed his eyes imagining a bridge between their minds, and yanked her out of her mind, dragging her back into his. Pain switched off. He sagged in relief as his muscles released. Opening his mind’s eye, he watched as Rose let go of his hand to lean over. She gripped her thighs and took several cleansing breaths. He copied her, knowing their physical bodies would mimic them. The Doctor released all but the most tenuous threads connecting them both to her body. Filtering the connection through him, he cut her off completely from her physical form. It made him ache, which he could handle, and Rose’s mind would be protected, held intact inside him. 

The rash decision hit him in the hearts. Rose was safe, yes. Rose was in his mind. A giddy little chuckle escaped him as the hot humany warmth of her mind glowed within him. Rose side-eyed him. He beamed. Rose examined the large empty expanse of his mind, eyes bright with curiosity. Did she feel cold here? She said he was cooler, shadier. Mentally and oh, she had no idea how close to the truth that was. There were shadowy alcoves to explore full of old memories and languages. Not that she could access the darkest ones. The Doctor was repressing those, so… safe. 

Oh, ohhhh! And Rose was going to have to stay here, in his mind for ten hours. Ten whole glorious hours of Rose Tyler’s consciousness intermingling… without her permission.

Guilty, he flushed. “I’m sorry.”

Rose stopped sightseeing to lock eyes with him. “We’re in your mind?”

“I didn’t ask,” he blurted, “You weren’t responding to the sedatives and the Tardis knew you were in pain. I couldn’t stand it so I just dragged you here into my mind with no permission, no… consent.” He blanched. 

Rose jumped him, her arms going around his construct and pulling him flush up against her, the warmth of her consciousness bleeding into the edges of his. It was indescribably wonderful, amazing, intriguing, alluring, tempting... Years of silence and emptiness except for the Tardis. She didn’t know. She didn’t realize. She was only hugging him. Her thoughts were pinging into his mind like tiny pleasant blinks of light. Feelings like relief and comfort leaked from her form. He shivered.

“Rose, Rose, wait Rose…” he warned. She had to know what she was doing to him and HERE of all places. 

She cut him off brilliantly with a kiss. Minds overlapping and blending, the Doctor’s system was swamped. Rose’s emotions hit him in a tsunami of affection in blazing pinks, relief in sparkling greens, fading red to pink pain, and a shocking amount of bright golden love. He hugged her tightly to keep from losing his grip on her body and his instincts. Long dormant parts of his mind lit up in reaction. Waves of affection floated between them. The Doctor tried to control his emotions, failing terribly, reduced to just hanging on. 

His body, faraway in the medbay tightened his grip on Rose, pulling her fully against him. He may have even let out some embarrassing noises. He definitely would have gotten in trouble if Rose had been the least bit connected to her corporeal form. His mind blanked out a bit, as the kiss ended.

His eyes had closed somewhere along the way. As Rose pulled her warm lips away from his, the Doctor bit back the urge to whimper. Or chase her lips, reestablish that lovely, warm, intimate connection… She was so human. She didn’t know what she did to him. His eyes slowly opened.

Rose stepped out of their hug. He did whimper then. Her cheeks turned pink then scarlet. 

“Wha-ahhht?” he drawled brilliantly.

Rose turned half away from him, flapping her arms a bit. She reached back for him and stopped. “Just… Sorry! I wasn’t thinking and I-”

He raised his eyebrows. Did she know? Did she realize? Nah, no.

“I touched your breasts there, didn’t I?” she asked, twisting the edges of her T-shirt.

He blinked. 

Huh? Oh! Ohhhh right. 

Rose squirmed adorably, staying red-cheeked. “Like, when you were in my head. You said it was like… So I…” she laughed awkwardly, “returned the favor there.” She made a face wagging a finger at him.

A laugh burst out of his shaky construct of a chest. His corporeal body relaxed, the tension draining out. This he could do. This he could handle. “That’s uh, I mean… It’s quite all…” Maybe not. 

It had been a long, long, long, time after all. And… she might, she could love him, romantically. Nah, no, nope. Gratitude. Affection. Love, nah, mistaken. Human emotions were complicated. That kiss though… That was… Her turn after all… Was his brain always this mushy and unfocused? He was the last of the Timelords for Rassilon’s sake! He scratched at the back of his head, hoping the mental stimulation would ground him, make him less… awkward.

Rose hugged him again. Lucky for him, she had leashed her emotions and all he was getting from her now was a bright sparkling rainbow of amusement. He returned the hug, leaning into her warmth. She was a campfire. He was a tiny moth. He may have made an embarrassing little humming sound of approval.

“Anyway, retroactive permission,” she whispered in his ear. “Thanks. Reckon I wasn’t going to survive that.” Fear tinged his awareness of her. Echoes of the ordeal rushed through both of them as her mind flashed back.

“Don’t think about it.” Projecting comfort, he held on, the constriction in his hearts easing. “Rose it’s over now, you’re going to be fine.” He grinned, leaning his cheek against the top of her head. He got a hint of her shampoo and realized he must be doing the same thing on the outside. He let her go, keeping her hand in his. “Look at you, Rose Tyler, hanging out in the most exclusive club in town. There aren’t many places like this, the inside of a Timelord’s brain.”

“Seems a bit empty,” Rose remarked.

The Doctor scoffed. She giggled, smacking at him playfully, her amusement sparkling.

“That’s not what I meant. Just figured the inside of your brain would look like the inside of the Tardis,” she explained. “Or like a mish-mash of weird alien worlds. Or my bedroom since you are always in there poking around.”

“Oi! Am not,” he protested even as he realized it was true. “Not always,” he amended.

“Stop being offended, I don’t mind.” Rose teased. “Get it? Mind?”

He rolled his eyes. “Rose, normally it would look like whatever I project. Bit busy here maintaining the link to your body so you can go home eventually.” 

Rose eyed him up. “Does it hurt?”

“No,” he lied.

“Liar.”

When did he forget how to lie well?

“A bit,” he conceded. “Need to concentrate. So, if you feel the urge to kiss me again...”

“I won’t,” Rose promised, to his utter crushing disappointment. “Can’t have you losing connection with my body. Wait, what happens if you do? What if my body dies?” Rose’s voice was small and gray with terror.

The Doctor made a show of rolling his eyes at her. “Your body is fine. Don’t worry. I’ve got you.”

“No, but what if I die and I’m in here? Do I just vanish?” she asked.

He sat down and got into a lotus position. Standing in a construct in his mind was taking up too much energy. Maintaining this for ten hours was going to eat up a lot of calories. She sat down opposite him. Right, she wanted an answer to her philosophical quandary.

“Nope,” he told her, “all of your mind is currently inside mine. If, and this is a purely hypothetical question since your lovely human body is going to be just fine, you died while here it would be ideal.”

“I’m dead and you say it’s ideal? How is it ideal?” Oh, her curiosity was lovely, felt lovely, like sitting in a sunbeam.

The Doctor nodded. “Yep. Ideal. Perfection even. You, Rose Tyler would just keep me company forever.”

“Pull the other one.” Rose moved to sit beside him. She leaned heavily against him, her warmth bleeding into him. “I’d drive you spare.”

“Nah, there are ten of me in here. You could just annoy each one in turn.” The Doctor imagined a wall to lean against, to take their combined weight. 

Rose didn’t like that answer and little pulses of disbelief were warring with annoyance. “I’d fade away and you’re lying to me because you don’t want to frighten me.” 

He fought the urge to roll his eyes again. The only one frightening Rose was Rose. But it was understandable. She was only human. This was tough stuff for any sentient being. ‘Am I my body? Or am I my mind?’ 

“Rose, your consciousness, everything that makes you, you would be perfectly preserved in my frankly magnificent mind, until I could get some hair from your mother’s baby book, or your hairbrush on the Tardis, and clone you. Then genius me, I pop you right back into your brand new body before Jackie Tyler can slap me into my next life. Ideal.”

She mulled that over. “So, are you planning on cloning me if I die when I’m in my own body?”

“No. No, without your lovely Rose Tyler memories, she would probably be a very lovely person but she wouldn’t be you. We’re all the sum total of our memories. That’s you. And all of you is here with all of me.” That last sentence came out a bit gleeful.

She beamed. “You can be sweet sometimes.”

“Only sometimes?” he asked softly as they gazed at one another.

Rose rolled her eyes. “How long am I going to be here?”

“Nine hours, twenty-two minutes,” he replied.

“That’s a long time to sit here,” Rose murmured, hugging her knees.

The Doctor agreed, much as he was enjoying her warmth. He needed time to process that huge informational packet of emotion from one Rose Marion Tyler. Mulling time. He needed to mull and not look at her lips longingly. Plus, the strain of entertaining her while he was holding both minds and both bodies together was a lot even for his frankly magnificent mind.

“Take a walk around,” he suggested.

“What’s out there?” Rose asked nervously as the shadows moved in the corners.

“S’just me, Rose.”

The young woman had been prowling around the edges of his consciousness for several minutes before he deigned to go an see who it was. He crooked a finger at her and the woman followed him into the corner of the current Doctor’s mind where he liked to reside. She stepped in and the floor resolved itself into solid white. The white spread to the walls, recreating the interior of his Tardis, complete with roundels glowing softly yellow. He leaned against his console, dramatically. 

“Well,” he began when she entered face wreathed in smiles, large hazel eyes taking in the center console and his magnificent self dressed in his patchwork rainbow coat and black striped yellow pants, “Aren’t you going to tell me who you are and why you’re hanging around in my mind?”

Instead of answering him, the insufferable young thing let out a guffaw and pointed. Finger wagging, she covered her mouth to muffle her sounds of mirth. Harumphing, he turned his back on her, still leaning against his magnificent ship. She inched closer to him. He gave her the side-eye. She reached out and up onto her toes to touch his curls. “Love the blond,” she murmured. 

Flattered, he turned to face her. “Likewise,” he responded and looped a strand of her hair around his finger. She smirked. 

“Are you like his memory of an earlier regeneration or what?” the woman asked.

She was dressed in early 21st-century clothing, dark jeans, camisole, and sweats with a very familiar pair of trainers in pink. He used to wear cream ones just like that when he was a bit… more cricket. And she knew him.

“Or what, mostly,” he remarked, “It’s not *his* memory right now, it’s mine. I suppose you know me then? You know the Doctor? And for whatever reason, I’ve decided to hide a woman in my mind from when? 2010?”

“2006,” she replied, “Shouldn’t you know?”

“Hm, no, ah, I like to stay in my own memories. I already have enough to remember with the five previous versions of me, and the occasional updates from the two after me, since we tended to bump into each other quite a lot. So, forgive me young lady for not knowing what the current version of me is up to at every moment.”

“You look like a Pride Flag if it was a person,” she remarked.

“I take that as a great compliment.” He touched his little cat pin. 

“Meant it,” she remarked. “Rose, by the way. Rose Tyler.”

“Ah, Miss Tyler, am I to assume there is some sort of issue with your body? Injury? Coma?” He swirled around her checking for psychic trauma. “You seem a hale and healthy young mind, if a bit pink and yellow.”

She leaned against the console turning to face him and leaning back against his Tardis. “I was poisoned. The Doctor, the current you, brought me over here while my body’s healing. How did you know if you’re not aware of what he’s doing? And why don’t you want to know what he’s doing?”

The Doctor beamed. “You’re a very astute person, Miss Tyler! I don’t make a habit of connecting with other minds. Messy. Too personal. I like to keep myself to myself. I don’t mean to pry but... I think I must like you very much.” She blushed prettily and the Doctor felt bolts of affection hit him square in the hearts. He could see what he saw in her. “As for the other, I’m quite full of experiences thank you. Besides,” he drawled dramatically, “my time is over.”

A wave of sympathy flowed out of her petite person. The Doctor would have steeled himself in surprise if he wasn’t in the confines of his own mind. He was safe here and her emotions were quite pink, nice. That little hint of regret she felt wasn’t bad for his ego either. But enough of that. 

“How long will you be with us, Miss Tyler?”

“Ten hours, reckon it’s more like nine now.” She fidgeted before adding, “Rose, okay? Miss Tyler sounds like a school teacher. Want to show me around? Keep me company?”

“Of course, it would be my honor,” he said, then added, “Rose.” 

Another pretty blush and he was grinning like the cat that got the canary. “C’mon, you may as well meet the others. I dare say if we don’t go looking for them, the cheeky degenerates will come wandering into my memories, polluting my console room with theirs.” And because he was feeling generous, he offered her his elbow.

Rose Tyler slipped her arm through his and settled into his side, closer than he was accustomed to companions being and another broad hint at what this girl meant to him clicked into place. He might even update his memories to confirm it. His curiosity was well and truly piqued. He led her through his Tardis into the hallways. The others were often lounging in the poor velvet frock coat’s Eye of Harmony Cloister Room. It was the biggest.

“Is the Doctor alright?” Rose asked. “Only he was slurring a bit when I was with him.”

“Fine. I’m fine. I imagine what I’m doing takes a lot of mental lift,” the Doctor told her as they walked along the white hallways.

“Why is the Tardis so clean?”

Good grief. Had he become a hoarder in his dotage? Or slovenly? “I beg your pardon?”

“She’s sort of grunge in the future, more sort of organic. This is so… bright.” The young woman patted a wall affectionately and the Doctor felt the Tardis respond favorably to her. “Oh, it’s lovely, just not what I’m used to,” she told the wall. 

“The Tardis matches the mind that inhabits her. Mine is particularly bright,” he quipped and was rewarded with a giggle. “Ah, this way, I can see where the desktop changes.” They strolled to where the white flooring shifted to a gray stone. Leaves swirled around, dry and cracking as if someone had left the doors open in Autumn. Voices could be heard. 

“Are you all in there?” Rose asked, pulling him to a stop.

“No idea,” the Doctor replied, “some days it’s only the one in the velvet frock coat. It’s his Tardis after all. Other days the little one plays the recorder for us. The one before me turns up if that happens. The one in the scarf is like a cat, reclining everywhere there’s a sunbeam… Was there a particular incarnation you’re partial to, aside from your own?”

“No, I guess not,” Rose replied quickly, too quickly. 

“Ah, I see,” he said. “I can entertain you myself if you’re uncomfortable. I can take you to Peri’s favorite planets. Or Mel’s. Or, oh, we can eat my memories of Evelyn’s chocolate cake! Sumptuous!”

Rose leaned against him. “It’s alright, I want the full tour.”

“As you wish.” He lead her into the large stone cloister room. It was enormous with columns and the eye of harmony link in the center like some medieval well. It was all a bit ostentatious if you asked him. Sprawled on the steps was the one in the scarf. His hat was over his eyes and snores escaped his rather large protuberance. Beyond him was the one before him speaking softly with the little one.

Rose’s eyes were saucers. Her mind projecting curiosity and interest. “Which one traveled with Sarah Jane?”

The snoring cut off abruptly. The one in the scarf pulled his hat off his face and squashed it down over his rather exuberant brown curls. “Rose Tyler!” he boomed, face wreathed in smiles.

The one before him also beamed. He placed his gold-rimmed spectacles on his face to see her. “It is Miss Tyler! Hello!”

“They know me,” Rose remarked a bit smugly.

“Well, of course, I know you!” Boomed the one in the scarf as he got to his feet. He crossed the room in two long strides to get to Rose. Enthusiastically he pumped her arm up and down. “You’ve met my Sarah! I’m ever vigilant for information on her. She’s my very best friend, you know.”

The joy rolling off Rose Tyler made the Doctor quite jealous. He was escorting her, not some over-toothed madman in too much wool. His other self stopped pumping her arm but kept ahold of her fingers. “It’s so very good to meet you.”

Rose’s grin was equally toothy as she faced his former self. “Likewise. Sarah said you met mummies. My Doctor and I met a werewolf.”

“A werewolf?” the one before him called out. “How extraordinary! Turlough and I had a similar adventure...”

The little one came over as well. Luckily the dandy wasn’t there and the velvet frock coat was nowhere in evidence. It was already a bit crowded with this lot. Rose squeezed his arm as if she felt his disgruntlement. She might at that. He gave her a gracious smile.

“I know who you are, of course,” the one before him said, gushing and he wondered what that was supposed to mean. “Some of us keep up.”

“Some of us are enough for all of us,” he countered.

The blue eyes slid to his in annoyance. “Yes, some of us are a bit much.”

A laugh escaped Rose. “You’re arguing with yourself right now, you know that. This is what it’s like when someone talks to their mirror, isn’t it?”

“Not quite,” the one before him whined as the little fellow said, “no it isn’t!”

The one in the scarf only tapped his nose in amusement. Rose was fascinated by him. She reached out her free hand to touch the scarf and have a go at his curls. “Sarah’s Doctor.”

“Yes, I think I like that designation. Yes, very much, I do. I’m sure your own Doctor would enjoy being called yours as well,” he murmured.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” the Doctor asked.

“You’d know if you kept up,” the little one snapped.

Offended, the Doctor turned his nose up at that one. Rose again squeezed his arm to mollify him. My, she was a responsive little human. He gave her a sheepish grin. She tilted her head against his jacket. Maybe the little one had a point. Perhaps he would take on the new memories, especially if they featured this delightful creature!

“Tell me all about traveling with Sarah,” Rose asked.

The one in the scarf’s smile was blinding. It always was. The man had more teeth than brains. 

The Doctor kept losing focus. Rose was with his tall blond patchwork coat self. He could feel the memories stirring and moving in the shadows. Rose’s amusement was drifting all around him. It hurt not to be with her experiencing whatever it was she was experiencing out there in his mind. He focused on the link. Rose’s pain was diminishing minute by minute but not in any meaningful way. Her body was on fire and dealing with it. The link held. His physical form had fallen into a fitful sleep beside her.

Stretching his legs, he wished she would come back. New memories were pinging him from his other selves but since it was memories interacting with memories interacting with Rose it was all rather nebulous. He reoriented himself to the place in his mind that he occupied, tuning out the others. He examined his short term memory and re-experienced Rose’s emotional moment. He had parsed out the pain and anxiousness from the drug in her system. It left him with gobs and gobs of affection that even hours later sent tingles throughout his constructed limbs. Phantom sensations of colors and emotions drifted lazily about him. He was exhausted and no matter how he looked at the emotions he never could quite dismiss the golden feeling that Rose Tyler might love him. He hoped the others weren’t mucking it up back there in the distant recesses. 

Rose was wearing the long scarf looped around her when the Doctor found her. She was surrounded by his older, sillier selves, the ones before the war. That didn’t matter. She would come with him when he asked. He hadn’t bothered to interact with his other-selves. Why should he? They were from Before. He was from After. They couldn’t possibly understand the things he had done in service to the Timelords and the Universe. He’d seen the cage they made for the one he tried to forget, the one who wasn’t quite the Doctor. His memories were walled off like an Edgar Allen Poe victim.

The one after him was running out of steam. He needed Rose to return to him. The Doctor knew he was the fastest way to make that happen, so here he was, stalking into the velvet one’s broken and distorted memories to reach the stone cloister room where the others gathered like the terrible gossips they were. They surrounded her like dogs hoping for treats. She glowed. The Doctor paused, leaning against a wall, observing his precious girl. He should have known she would notice him, his clever Rose.

A breathy, “Doctor,” escaped her and she was up and running. Opening his arms wide, he caught the slight girl and spun her around, laughing. She was mad! Swinging her a bit to make her laugh, he dropped her when she thumped him, unable to catch her breath. She pulled back, still gripping his biceps, eyes shining. Behind her, the clown version of himself looked interested. Too interested. He shot himself a cold look. The clown rolled his eyes. The other ones looked a bit put out. Good. Rose was his companion, not theirs. 

“Rose Tyler! Who let you in here?”

“You did!” Playfully she slapped at him. Her smile wide enough to crack her pretty face. “You look just like I remember. Face, voice, clothes, everything…”

“Oi, you can just go back to your own memories,” he called out to his past selves. The clown had been heading for them with a determined look on his face.

“Same friendly disposition,” Rose snarked. She held up a hand to him and raced back to hug the clown, the scarf one, the cricket one, and the hobo. He was surprised the sneaky Panama hat one wasn’t lurking or the pretty boy in his velvet. Rose would have loved him, like his current self, too pretty. She came back to his side with a wave for the past. “Alright, I’m all yours.”

The Doctor smiled as she stroked the black leather jacket as if she had missed it as much as him. It was flattering. He offered her a grin and his hand. Rose slipped her smaller, hotter hand into his and all was right with his world. “As much as I would love to steal you away, Rose Tyler. I’m here to take you back.”

“To my body?” Rose asked.

“No, not yet. But I’m exhausted. Need to rest and I’m a bit distracted by how much attention my memories are giving you. I’d probably hate it if I knew I was here with you. I’m a jealous old fool,” he replied, not worried about his mouth now that he was essentially dead.

“The pronouns,” Rose huffed, “I know you’re all the same person but have pity on the human girl.”

“Keep up, you’re capable of it.” He squeezed her hand. “Now come along, like a good little human. We need to get you back to the Doctor you belong with.”

“Thought I already was,” Rose asked, giving him that tongue-touched smile that made him want to break a lot of old customs. He tugged her in closer. “Are you alright in here?”

“In me own mind, Rose? Yeah. ‘Course. I can relive any moment I like.” The Doctor smiled. He relived that kiss a lot. Shame she didn’t remember it.

“Liar,” she sang. “I miss you.”

“How can anyone miss this daft old face?” He gave her a sidelong glance. “Besides, thought you were getting along with the newer model?”

“Am, yeah,” she beamed, the happiness lighting up her lovely face. “But I love these ears, they’re so large…” she tickled him with her free hand. 

Rolling his eyes, he pulled her through his own Tardis and back into the black expanse where his current self was resting. Rose pulled forward when she saw him slumped over. The Doctor pulled back. Rose turned. “He needs me.”

“Yeah, go to him. Don’t distract him much. Remember when we were in your mind? You imagined a bed. Do that. Get him rested. Rest yourself. You’re going to wake up in your own body. Now go one… no, wait,” he touched her face. “Goodbye, Rose Tyler.”

Rose’s big hazel eyes filled with tears. “Yeah, not really though.”

“No, not really,” he agreed.

Rose was tiny but capable of the most amazing hugs. He gave in and hugged her tightly. She smelled like he remembered all fruity shampoos and floral lotions. He’d forgotten how hot humans ran. Maybe he should do what the other ones did and relive the good memories. He squeezed once more before letting go. He waved, letting himself fade from her view as she raced to the current pretty boy Doctor.

The Doctor was being lifted up off the floor onto a familiar bed. A pink duvet was tossed over him. Rose climbed in next to him. She smiled. He smiled back. Fluffing his pillow, she fussed over him, pushing his hair away from his forehead and checking him for a temperature. It amused him. This construct wasn’t capable of developing a fever unless he imagined burning up. They only had two hours to go. She spooned him. He closed his eyes.

Rose’s eyes opened. “Hello,” he said.

“You’re showered?” she asked, voice raspy.

The Doctor offered her a glass of water. “Drink.”

After he had settled Rose’s sleeping mind back into her body, he had needed a few minutes to himself. The memories interacting with her needed sifting. She had left a trail of broken hearts in her wake as his former selves had been first charmed and abandoned. He had felt both elation and melancholy. Unsettled, he had cleaned up and eaten breakfast. 

“I should shower,” she murmured. “Am alright?”

“Other than the little hole in your shoulder, you are one hundred percent,” he replied. “Didn’t leave a single memory behind. Although, your memories in my memories will fade.”

Rose sat up, sipping her water. “Do they have to fade?”

“Don’t you want them to?” he asked carefully.

“No,” Rose said, “you were too cute to forget. The one that traveled with Sarah tells the best stories! And the one in the cricket outfit told me the best story about a rabbit. And the one in the rainbow coat was adorable and…”

“Alright, alright,” the Doctor said, holding his hands up in surrender. 

“Besides, how else would I remember it’s your turn?” 

He sputtered as the memory of that kiss washed through him. Ears turning pink. “That, oh ah, Rose!” He could not make eye contact. Nope. No, never again. His ears were too hot.

“Thanks for saving me,” Rose said, touching his arm, drawing his gaze against his will. 

“Anytime. I’m glad you didn’t meet the one that looks like an opera singer… Or, oh the one who plays the spoons, or the one that’s prettier than me… mind you that cricket one is a looker.” The Doctor rambled.

“Oh, let me back in, I have got to meet the one you think is prettier than you.”

“Never, never ever, you belong with me, Rose Tyler and that’s the end of it.”

**Author's Note:**

> I know it gets a bit confusing with the jumps from Doctor to Doctor but I don't make the rules. They do what they want.


End file.
